Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro referred to Bernie Sanders as “our revolutionary friend,” and claimed that the Vermont senator would be able to win the White House if elections in America were “free and fair.”
During a Spanish-language interview this week, Maduro also said that the “archaic 200-year-old” U.S. electoral system is preventing Sanders from winning. The current Venezuelan president took over for strongman Hugo Chavez in 2013 and has since expressed support for Sanders’ socialist policies.
During a March 2015 interview Maduro called Sanders an “emerging candidate with an innovative and revolutionary message.”
Although Maduro was full of praise for the Vermont senator, he also weighed in on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump can win with the electoral system they have in the United States. And you know why? Because Donald Trump is using hidden forces of change in American society,” Maduro said.
Sanders has worked with the Venezuelan government before, closing a deal with Chavez in 2006 to bring cheap heating oil to low-income Vermont residents. At the time Sanders said that his dealings with Chavez were “not a partisan issue.”
